High School Exit Exam Essay

High school exit exams are the trapdoors of the world of education. These tests tie our scores to our diplomas and push students that missed the cutoff out of school and into unemployment. Exit Exams are an unfair way of determining whether or not a student should receive their diploma. Most students work very hard throughout their years in school to receive good grades which should be enough to determine whether or not a student should pass high school. State laws that require students to pass an exit exam in order to receive a highschool diploma can harm students and schools. According to an article from Linda Hammond, a reporter at Stanford University, inflexible high school exit exam policies force teachers to “rush” the curriculum they

This means that over the course of the year, the students progress is being tracked and evaluated. Therefore, taking a cumulative exam at the end of the year doesn’t tell a teacher anything they don’t already know about a student’s abilities. In my experience when people cram for finals, they become stressed and go over just enough material in order to pass the test, but they end up forgetting everything else that they have learned throughout the year. This completely defeats the purpose of school which is to fully understand and expand your knowledge on specific

Many students stay up late studying or lay awake at night worrying about the high-stakes test they have the next day. In a study performed by Nancy Hamilton, a psychology professor at the University of Kansas, looked at the effects these high-stake exams take on students. She found that the anxiety that was being felt wasn’t caused by fear of the test itself. The stress and anxiety came from the thoughts about the potential life changing consequences that could come after the test itself such as worrying about getting into a good college, landing a good high paying job, and the fear of disappointing their parents. Many people continue to believe that without these exams too many students will receive their diplomas without actually earning them. These people believe that if students go through the year getting A’s and B’s then they should be able to pass these tests with no problem. The students that earn the good grades should be able to easily set themselves apart from the others that don’t necessarily try throughout the year and the students who don’t put in any effort should not be given their diploma without working to earn